Mexico!

So for a long time I've know about the "Whales" trip that the Bush Pilots put together. I've heard the stories of getting to pet Gray Whales, the Hotel Serenadad's wonderful margaritas, an airstrip in an isolated corner of Mexico where few travelers ever tread, all this in easy reach only to those who ply the skies by their own hands. It all sounds like a pilots dream: a vacation where you lazily get to see things that only the most determined ground bound traveler ever gets to see!

Living on the east coast makes for a long trip to get to Mexico but now that I'm in San Diego it is just a couple minutes of flying time and a bit of bureaucratic hassle to spend a weekend in Mexico. Dad is my all too willing passenger.

The flight plan is pretty straight forward: Get fuel at Brown Field 15 miles south of San Diego, then after take off make a left turn, cross the border and hope that the Mexican Air Traffic controllers speak good English because when it comes to Spanish, outside of numbers and beverages I'm useless. After entering Mexico, we fly about 45 minutes to San Felipe, an international airport that is on the Northwest Shore of the Sea of Cortez (or the Gulf of Baja). We'll do a little dance with the officials there and then motor south to Hotel Serenidad to spend three nights. On one of the days, we'll fly over to the west coast to see the whales and then head

home.

The Beauracratic requirements for

such a flight are not exactly simple but we managed to enter Mexico and return to the US without causing an international incident. The US has its fair share of things it wants:

1. File a Flight plan with the FAA
2. Open the flight plan before crossing the border
3. File a departure notification with US Customs
4. Have a customs sticker (i.e. pay us)
5. 12 inch lettering(which I put on with shoe polish and so it looks like a 3 year old did it)

The Mexicans have their little list:

1. Land at an airport of entry
2. Liability insurance that is valid in Mexico
3. Airplane Entry Permit (i.e. Pay Us!)

The requirements are not that

onerous but compared to my normal mode of flying where I pretty much don't need to ask for permission to go anywhere it seems like an enormous burden to bear. This is actually a shortened list, there is more to it, for an exhaustive list go to the bush pilots web site.

After an 8 minute flight to Brown Field, which is all of 1.5 miles from the

Mexican Border, we get fuel and head across the border. The Controller at Brown was super helpful:

He opened our flight plan and immediately gave us a hand off to Tijuana Tower. Less than 30 seconds after departure we're in Mexico talking with Controllers who, apart from saying something more "royer" than Roger, cheerfully spoke good English. We climbed up to 9500 feet and after about 30 miles TJ control ditched us and we were on our own, that is no controllers to talk to which is an unusual situation to be in when flying in the US but in Mexico it's totally normal. So we fly in complete radio silence for about 3o minutes and then about 25 miles from San Felipe we call their tower and coordinate landing with them. I say

coordinate because they don't actually work like a control tower in the US where they stop you from hitting other planes by maintaining separation. On the contrary this person who happens to sit in a tower just lets you know about where the other airplanes are and what the wind happens to be doing. Again, no big deal just a bit different than the services we get in the US. We land, and there are a ton of other pilots and passengers all headed in the same direction, to Hotel Serenidad for the Whales trip. We get entry permits for our person, for our plane, show them a letter written in Spanish saying we have insurance, file our flight plans, get fuel, and then pay up: total is about $160 and only about $30 is fuel. Welcome to Mexico. I didn't mention that there are armed guards at all the Mexican airports: Military at least in uniform, if not in physique. The guards are total enamored with my plane and the shiny metal that I've been polishing off and on for the past few weeks. I let one sit in the plane and they take some pictures. The guards are nice to have around when you're already paranoid about your plane getting stolen or broken into.

After getting all the admin stuff out of the way at San Felipe we motor further south along the Sea of Cortez, about 1:45 is the calculated trip time. Again there are no air traffic services to use enroute but the Bush Pilots have given us all call signs and a common frequency to use so that we can chat, deconflict and tell lies about how fast were going...

The flight is again at 9500 feet. The terrain is very dry and looks

unforgiving. The Sea of Cortez is a

variety of colors, ranging from

turquoise to, deep blue and black. Should the only engine I've got decide to cash in it's chips I have little doubt that the airplane would get trashed, and my dad and I would be lucky to get out unscathed. If we did, then we would be lost in a vast featureless expanse that has no water, hungry animals, very few people and no emergency services. I'm glad I've got a personal locator beacon with me!

As we motor south, white caps begin to build on the Sea Of Cortez. When we get to our destination it's blowing about 25 knots, but lucky for me the wind is straight down the runway. We land uneventfully. After showing the military guards my paperwork and US pilots license we are treated to a welcome drink at the Hotel, actually 2 for me because Dad doesn't drink, Yay! We go in to town and have a dinner that couldn't be forgotten and are off to bed.

The first day is spent touring around the countryside and canyons. There are petroglyph that are supposed to be 11,000 years old... You had to pay an extra fee to take pictures so the image below is purloined from another blog...

Landscape was very dry,

rugged, and seemingly uninhabitable by anything friendly but we still managed to see a deer. The other thing that the tour guide shamelessly promotes is all the supposed miracle cures that are in the desert, the theme was, take this (insert root, bark, leaf, wood, stick, animal... ) and

made a tea, take it three times a day for 30 days and your ailment will be gone... My reaction was if your ailment isn't gone in 30 days you're probably dead... local color I suppose.

Saturday is the big day, we get up early, and fly off to Laguna St. Ignacio. This is the lagoon where 400 whales regularly decide to spend the winter. They migrate down the Pacific coast from Alaska and end up calving in the lagoon. This is where the moms teach their babies to dive and play all sorts of whale games. We're all a little skeptical about the prospect of petting a whale but this is why we came and what we all paid for so we're eager to see what's there. The flight over to the lagoon is a lot like the flight from San Felipe, and every other flight on this trip: We take off after most everyone else and then land before them. You have no idea how satisfying it is to tell people how little fuel you're burning while you're beating their pants off in trip times. This is the big advantage of a speedy little plane you built in your garage vs the average production plane that almost everyone else flies in. There are disadvantages, I'll get to that later but for now

lets bask in the glory that is going faster, burning less fuel, having a newer plane, lower costs, and way better looks.

So after we land into another 25 knot headwind we are greeted by a helpful tour guide who gives us a ride to a

small boat launch about 2 miles from the airstrip. We get the briefing: sit down in the boat, you'll probably get wet, don't poke the whales in the eyes,

blow hole, tail or pectoral fins. After the briefing it is 2hrs in the boat: 15 min motoring in and out and then 90 minutes trawling around for whales.

After getting in the boat it's clear that

there are lots of whales and other marine mammals close by. We see whales blowing everywhere! Right away we see a dolphin and that is nice but not what we came to see. We continue motoring along. Evidently the count in the lagoon is something like 390 whales and we're right there!

It doesn't take long to see one up close. After a bit of time they come very close to the boat and let us pet them. They feel a bit rubbery and soft to the touch. Typically after you pet them a bit they come back at least a few more times to get touched again. It's amazing to see an animal the size

of a bus casually swim by and glance up as if to say "hello, I know you, we should have lunch some time."

On a few occaisions a whale would treat us to a "spy hop" where the whale would swim vertically out of the water just to get a brief look around the surface and then slide back in the water. Again, it is amazing when you see something the size of a bus leap half way out of the water and quietly slide back in. Everything they did was graceful, they didn't splash us, they didn't breach, all they did

was leisurely swim around. Not a bad life.

So we get a ride back to the airstrip in a beat up van and fly back to Hotel Serinidad. The wind is still blowing 25 knots and while being light on fuel and baggage my little plane is off the ground in less than 200 feet. We pass a few of the others on our way back and others still have to make a trip to Loreto because they need fuel to be able to make it back to San Felipe where most of us plan to clear customs.

So that is the big advantage of a homebuilt airplane: Efficiency. My little plane gets much better mileage than the other planes that are along on the trip. We are able to go from San Felipe to Hotel Serinidad, San Ignacio and still have 2 hours of fuel to spare.

I did mention a downside... well homebuilt planes have a higher accident rate. And there was one other homebuilt plane along on the trip and it happened to lose power shortly after take off. I don't think this was an inexplicable loss of power, just before this plane departed another aircraft on the ground radioed that the accident aircraft "still had it's plugs in." I believe that this pilot forgot to remove the cowling nose plugs which would have made the engine overheat and fail shortly after take off. Speculation?

Yes but engines generally don't quit by their own volition, especially aircraft engines. Airplanes are incredibly fun, interesting and compelling but it is a very unforgiving activity. Part of the mystique is intertwined with the inherent riskiness of the endeavor. The tiny population of pilots need to do more to manage the risks of flying so that they can protect their pastime from being regulated out of existence by a population that is always tending toward avoiding risk.